The idea that human settlements grow in random and spontaneous fashion ignores the important distinctions that different forms of urban planning offer. All cities have been shaped and reshaped, though methods are not always codified into law. Today’s cities are no different; from their grid street fabric to the details of the sewer lines all elements of the city are brought together into a cohesive whole.
Literacy in many different disciplines is required in order to shape the built environment. Paris as we know it did not begin to take its form until the mid-19th century when Haussmann leveled entire districts of medieval streets to create the boulevards for which the city is known today. And though we cannot remember it any other way, the minutia of our hometown block is not random. Professionals outlined the sidewalk shape, planted the trees, and laid the pipe under the asphalt.
Officials can make plans that end up being detrimental to a site’s design and its long-term life in the community. For example, the urban renewal movement of the mid 20th century used eminent domain to tear down thousands of blocks of structures because they were considered slums. Many people were displaced without relocation plans from their neighborhoods, many of which would have likely been reborn today considering the trends of many current downtown renewal projects. Further, land that was once agricultural suddenly became ripe for residential development once a large-capacity road was built nearby, which has slowly deflated America’s farming industries. In addition, waterfront land that was once neglected is now some of the most desirable downtown real estate.
However, many cities proclaimed their waterfronts to be dead for any development other than industry and decided to plan around them, building overbearing highways along their banks and cutting off public access to what has now become a great urban resource.
www.planning.com
www.philaplanning.org
http://www.dvrpc.org
http://www.phila.gov/ohcd/
www.phila.gov/nti
www.pha.phila.gov
http://www.phila.gov/rda/index.html
www.planetizen.com
www.cyburbia.org
www.aiaphiladelphia.org
www.centercityphila.org
www.planningpa.org
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENVI/cityweb.html
http://www.has.vcu.edu/usp/03links.htm